4D Ultrasounds

Here are some new ultrasounds... in 4D!  Not sure what that means but it's way cooler than the other ones we've done.  

To see more ultrasounds and baby-in-the-womb pics, go here.

Spring 2009 in Review

One more semester down, one more semester to go. This has been a crazy and frustrating school year, but it has also been the most rewarding, both academically and personally. Here's a quick overview:

Health Improvements

You may remember that last semester I had gone through a difficult encounter with pneumonia. I spread myself thin trying not to let it keep me from doing my work. And I've been struggling with it ever since. Here's the best way I can think to illustrate the way my lungs feel: You know when you fill a balloon, it's stretched tight, full of air, and floats to the top of the ceiling? And how after a few days it begins to sort of float down, the rubber becomes squishy and weak, the color not so bright, and it just looks kind of wimpy? You could put more air in it, but the balloon probably won't sustain as much as it did before. That's what my lungs feel like still. It's like taking a deep breath, but never being able to breath in quite as deep as before.

As bad as that sounds, I'm making progress. As I exercise and get more active again I can feel the strength coming back to my lungs. And less stress is definitely having a positive effect. It's just taking a lot of time, and those of you who know me well know that I am very impatient, especially when it comes to my own limitations. But progress is being made. I'm trying to be more active, and I plan on spending a lot of time outside this summer, exercising and getting more strength back into my body.

Classes

My main goal this semester was to strike the right balance between rest and hard work. I needed to take some classes that I would enjoy, but that wouldn't stress me out too much and make my healing process more prolonged. So I took Global Economic Relations, U.S.-Latin American Relations, 21st Century Intelligence Problems, and an intro class in Information Studies. Nothing was really very new to me, but it was a good review and I got to read a lot of fantastic books. I wish I had done better in the economics class, but I think I got more out of it since I wasn't trying to be so anal about making an A. And as far as my Latin American class, I feel somewhat redeemed since last semester I made B's in both of the Latin American classes I took. Here's the report card:

I managed to raise my GPA by a whole 0.01%

I also came to the realization this semester that I am tired of sitting in lectures. I'm ready to focus more on doing my own research and writing about it. Don't get me wrong, I have spent the last four years sitting through some great lectures, but I'm ready to do my own thing. Which is why I'm doing a big independent study project for the fall. I guess this means I'm ready for grad school.

Baby on the Way

Sharon and I decided last January that it would be a good time to start a family, and it's been somewhat of a struggle. We've gone through a couple pregnancies that resulted in miscarriages, but we've finally been able to make one stick. Sharon's about 24 weeks along right now, and both she and the baby are as healthy as can be. He's got quite the appendages and never stops reminding mommy that he knows how to use them. I've already got him started on listening to Bob Marley, much to Sharon's chagrin, which might explain all the kicking and dancing he's doing. We just got some new 4D ultrasounds that I'll stick up as soon as I get them scanned.

Oh, and the name we've been bouncing around for a while is Nathan Andrew Wagoner.

What the Future Holds

So the plan right now is to graduate in the Fall, and start graduate school in the Spring. If I play my cards right, and don't get too lazy, I can knock out all the work for my independent study over the summer, which will leave me with only six hours of class for my last semester (Capstone and Social Statistics). That will be great since I'll never sleep again once the baby comes.

I've also got some changes coming to my job, but of all that is in the works and I don't want to start talking about it until I know exactly what all my responsibilities will be. Suffice it to say, though, that I'm looking forward to it.

First Impressions: Apple In-Ear Headphones

[This was originally written as a Facebook note on 1.27.2009]

I mentioned in a previous post that I love my new iPod Touch. However, its main virtue can also be its biggest weakness under certain conditions. What I'm talking about is the touch screen itself. It introduces a great interface for helping to make a tiny computer function at almost the same level of usefulness as a larger portable computer. But for playing music (this is an iPod after all, right?), the lack of more tactile, accessible controls can make things difficult. I purchased a high quality leather slip case for it (which I prefer over the other cases that leave the screen vulnerable), but pausing and playing songs while I'm going from class to class becomes cumbersome as I have to take the whole device out of its case, unlock the screen (or double-tap the home button), press the proper controls, and then slip it back in the case. For this reason I got a pair of Apple's new In-Ear Headphones. These higher quality ear buds come with an in-line remote that allows you to control your music without actually touching the iPod itself.

Form and Function

Below are some photos of the main aesthetic features of the In-Ear Headphones:

Apple includes an odd but useful pill-shaped carrying case for the different sized ear
covers. These rubber covers are of high quality that don't rip like others I've used.

Beneath the ear covers, you'll find a steel body with removable,
screw-on screens for cleaning. Apple also includes an
extra set of screens in case you lose them.

Squeezing the controls on the in-line remote gives a solid, tactile click.
Click the middle button once to play/pause;
twice to skip to the next track;
three times to go back to the previous track.
The + and - buttons control the volume.

Sound Quality

Many disagree, but I have always found the sound and build quality of Apple's stock headphones to be very high (I still use the original ear buds that came with my iPod three years ago). I think the reason why I favor Apple's headphones is because they aren't very bass-heavy, and the kind of music I listen to is more enjoyable with crisp highs and clean mid-range sounds. The technical virtue of Apple's In-Ear Headphones is that they are dual-driver ear buds, meaning that inside the casing of each bud there are two dedicated speakers: a tweeter and a mid-range. I'm no audiophile, so I'm not the best judge of audio quality, but the main difference I can tell between the stock headphones and the in-ear model is that the latter sounds more precise. And since the in-ear model closes the earlobe off from outside noise, the audio sounds very untainted and clear.

The form and function of these headphones, combined with the clean, precise audio quality, make the Apple In-Ear Headphones worth the $79 price tag.

The NetNewsWire/NewsGator Ecosystem

The two most valuable lessons I’ve learned from 4 years of undergraduate studies in political science are that politics sucks and that news is important. If you’re reading this blog, then you probably know me pretty well, and you know that I am a total news junkie. The method I use for consuming news is not unlike drinking from a fire hose. I’ve tried various methods of aggregating news, but the best one I’ve managed to make work for me is subscribing to news wires like Reuters, AP, BBC, etc. And though there are many ways of aggregating multiple RSS feeds — such as Google Reader and Bloglines — the best solution I’ve managed to come up with is NetNewsWire and NewsGator.

I specifically need to access my news feeds from three places: my home computer (a Mac), my work computer (a PC), and my iPod Touch. Using a service like Google Reader, which is probably the best solution for most people, I can access my feeds from anywhere within a browser. The only drawback is that I’m not a big fan of the interface, and the mobile version for the iPhone is a bit clunky. I prefer an interface that feels more like an email client.

For the longest time, NetNewsWire was the only real solution for RSS reading on the mac, and it cost somewhere around $30. About a year or two ago, it was bought by NewsGator and was turned into freeware. With the release of NetNewsWire for iPhone, you can now use the synchronization tools available through NewsGator to keep all your feeds up-to-date on both your desktop and your iPhone or iPod Touch. And with NewsGator’s web interface, you can also peruse your feeds from within a browser on any platform (though the interface isn’t nearly as powerful as the standalone apps).

Here’s a quick side-by-side comparison of both the desktop and the mobile apps.

The first interface feature you'll notice is how it displays the number of unread items above the app icon, similar to the way Mail displays your number of unread emails or how Things displays your number of unfinished tasks:

As you can see, NetNewsWire's desktop interface looks similar to an email client:

Below you can see how you navigate through your feeds. On the left, you see all your feeds with unread items. In the center are the new items within the feed. On the right is an actual story:

For those of us who want to synchronize our RSS feeds between our Macs and our iPhones, NetNewsWire and NewsGator is the perfect combination. If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch and you don't have a Mac, you should be ashamed of yourself. However, NetNewsWire for iPhone is still a great RSS reader. And since it syncs with NewsGator's web-based reader, you can access your feeds from both your iPhone and any browser on whatever platform you want.

Book Review: Second Chance by Zbigniew Brzezinski

I just finished book 1 in my 12 book marathon entitled Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower by Zbigniew Brzezinski. This book examines the foreign policies of Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. In examining the three presidents, Brzezinski attempts to identify where we are in terms of our standing in the world, what we've done right and what we've done wrong along the way, and makes some recommendations for how we can regain much of our prestige, influence, and moral authority that we've lost under Bush II.

It should be pointed out where Brzeziski is coming from. He served as National Security Advisor to Jimmy Carter, and played an important role in several key U.S. foreign policy decisions that are still highly criticized: the normalization of relations with China, his lobbying to arm the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan to fight a proxy war against the Soviets, and his support for the Shah of Iran during the 1979 revolution. His policy positions under carter play an important part in shaping his framework for analysis. For example, because of his involvement in brokering the Camp David Accords, which was one of the most important (albeit short-term) successes of the Carter presidency, he pays particularly close attention to the continued efforts of Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II to promote a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Regardless of his personal involvement in the issue, the Arab-Israeli conflict is a fairly effective and relevant way to measure the policies of the three presidents — our unqualified support for Israel has been one of the most controversial issues in U.S. foreign policy and has lead, according to many, to greater resentment and extremism by the Arab world toward the U.S.

Brzezinski describes the three presidents as follows:

Bush I was the most experienced and diplomatically skillful, but lacked the kind of bold vision for foreign policy following the Cold War (even considering his grandiose idea of a "new world order"). Clinton was the brightest and most futuristic, but he lacked strategic consistency in his use of military power. Bush II had strong instincts but little knowledge of global complexities and was prone to dogmatic reasoning.

The author's thesis is simply that the U.S. missed the opportunity to form a coherent strategy for exploiting the changing international system. It is important to realize that the Cold War simplified things. The entire world was polarized around the U.S. and the Soviet Union. It was easy to identify enemies and potential threats in terms of black-and-white categorization of democratic and communist. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the U.S. stood at the precipice of global preponderance — a single hegemon in a world still recovering from a long, politically draining war that was far more bloody and violent for the developing world than it was for the two world powers. Here's an excerpt from the book that sums up Brzezinski's assessment of the three presidents' handling of the changing system:

Ultimately the issue since 1990 has been the question: Does America have the stuff to lead the world at a time when the political and social expectations of mankind are no longer passive and the coexistence of varying religions and cultures is being compressed (as in a pressure cooker) by the impact of interactive communications? [Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II] had the opportunity to answer that question, not as a philosophical abstraction but as a matter of real-life political choices. The first of these global leader/presidents sought to pursue a traditional policy in a nontraditional environment while America's two competing worldviews were still crystallizing. The second embraced a mythologized version of globalization in charge of mankind's destiny. The third pursued a militant commitment to prevail in a world dogmatically conceived as polarized between good and evil. (pp. 42-43)

Though we failed to take advantage of the changing post-Cold War world between 1992 and 2008, there is another change coming that, according to Brzezinski, we can capitalize on: the global political awakening. Because of the meteoric rise of internet communication, people in the less-democratic developing world are becoming more and more aware of what is going on in their own societies and in the world. There is a rising tide of people who are demanding more and more from their governments in terms of human decency and individual freedom. A U.S. foreign policy attuned to cultural diversity and a demonstrated desire to respect the values, customs, and religious beliefs of the rest of the world — and not do things like define struggles between the West and the Middle East as religiously charged struggles between good and evil — will win more hearts and minds than futile attempts at forcing our system of democracy on others. "Global leadership, according to Brzezinski, "must be accompanied by a social consciousness, a readiness to compromise regarding some aspects of one's own sovereignty [meaning transnational intangible forces], a cultural appeal with more than just hedonistic content, and a genuine respect for the diversity of human traditions and values." (pp. 215) He concludes:

At the onset of the global era, a dominant power has therefore no choice but to pursue a foreign policy that is truly globalist in spirit, content, and scope. Nothing could be worse for America, and eventually the world, than if American policy were universally viewed as arrogantly imperial in a postimperial age, mired in a colonial relapse in a postcolonial time, selfishly indifferent in the face of unprecedented global interdependence, and culturally self-righteous in a righteously diverse world. The crisis of American superpower would then become terminal. (pp. 215-216)

That sounds like good advice. Lets hope that our current president has the foresight and wisdom to navigate such troubled and turbulent global challenges.

Summer Reading Marathon: 12 Books, James Rollins, and Dan Brown

The 12 Book Marathon

There's just no rest for the weary. The Spring semester still isn't over, and I'm already getting started on my readings for the Fall. This is actually on purpose. With our kid coming in September, the Fall semester is certain to be turbulent. I worked out a way where I can preemptively knock out half of my overall workload by doing a 6 credit-hour independent study on the topic of 21st Century U.S. Foreign Policy Challenges. There are several reasons why I'm excited for this.

First, I get to read a bunch of awesome books from many of the more prominent public intellectuals. These are the kinds of books I would read anyway in my spare time. Now I get to do it for credit! Here's a quick look at the books:

Second, I'm really tired of lecture-based classes. Don't get me wrong, I've had the pleasure of being instructed by some amazing professors for the past 4 years. But right now I'm ready to just devour a lot of books and do a lot of writing. The course is set up in such a way that I'll cover six topics, with two books per topic. I'll read the books for each topic, and then write a short paper analyzing the authors' recommendations. This surely makes me sound like a complete nerd, but I'm really excited to do this kind of analytical writing.

Third, if I push myself hard enough, I can get all the work done during the summer, leaving me with just my Capstone course and Social Statistics (which I'm oddly excited for as well).

Summer of Novels

The big event I look forward to every summer is the publication of the latest James Rollins novel, which usually comes around every June or July. This summer and fall, however, I'm going to be spoiled with four new novels.

Rollins is putting out three books. The first one, which hits shelves tomorrow (April 28), is an adolescent book called Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow. This is Rollins' debut into this particular genre, but I'm fully confident in his ability to make it appeal to adults as well. The second one gets released on June 23. It's the latest in his Sigma Force series entitled The Doomsday Key. The third one is an individual adventure that's coming on October 28 called Alter of Eden.

Last but definitely not least, Dan Brown is finally finished with his follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, which is called The Lost Symbol. I sure hope the 5 years it took to put it out was well spent. Knowing the quality of Brown's writing, I'm sure it has been.

Of course, you can expect a slew of book reviews this summer.

Published! Eat that, 12th grade English teacher who called me a sycophant!

Over the last few months, a certain paper I wrote has steadily gathered success, which, I must say, I am very proud of. I don't consider myself a very accomplished person at this stage in my life. I wasn't at all interested in academic pursuits while I was in high school, and throughout college I've come to feel like I'm making up for lost time. So the recent publication of my research paper on Latin American economics finally makes me feel satisfied with the direction my life is going (more in terms of academic/career minded pursuits, not in terms of my marriage and religious activities, which I've always been satisfied with).

If you recall, last semester was a tough one for me. I was terribly sick with pneumonia and pleurisy, and I had some very demanding classes. There was one particular paper that I had worked very, very hard on. I probably spent dangerously too much time working on it and not enough time resting, but it was on a topic that I am very passionate about, and dare I say, I enjoyed every moment I spent working on it (except, of course, for all the hacking, coughing, full-body pain, and slow zombification). I turned it in and it was the most satisfying effort I've ever put forth in a research paper.

I was encouraged by my professor to submit the paper to a writing contest for the Latin American Best Paper Award. I did, and I won $500. I don't think I've ever had a semester where I didn't make the Dean's Honor Roll, but I'm not sure how serious an accomplishment anyone considers that. But a best paper award! That made me feel great, especially considering the fact that I nearly killed myself writing it — a disadvantage I had to the other contestants, I'm sure.

Well, I just got an email today saying that the same paper passed the editorial process and will now be published in OU's Journal of International Affairs!

Lest anyone forget my self-deprecating tendencies, let me play this down a bit. The JIA is a brand new journal published by OU's International Programs Center. The center has really turned into a wonderful institution and the publication of an academic journal is major step forward. But for now the circulation is only a couple hundred, and mostly just within OU itself. So even though I am not a world-renowned scholar, at least it gives me something to be proud of.

If anyone is curious, here's a link to the master in PDF. Or click on the typewriter at the top of this post.